The bell is tolling for Intel Macs with the arrival of the first Apple Silicon specific fe...
Apple has said it will continue to support Intel Macs for years, but many of the best new macOS Monterey features will only work on Apple Silicon. And so they should.
The best of macOS Monterey will need an M1 processor, or later
Apple justifiably has a strong reputation for supporting older devices, and much more so than other technology firms. Tim Cook also publicly committed to supporting Intel-based Macs even after the company has completed its transition to Apple Silicon ones.
That is all right and proper. But so is this -- Apple is already leaving Intel behind with new features that are exclusive to the M1 and whatever comes next.
The entire point of moving away from Intel was to create new Macs that could do what the older models couldn't.
Looking at the features of macOS Monterey that will require Apple Silicon, it does seem as if they are necessary because of hardware changes. Perhaps some are also about marketing and showing that Apple Silicon Macs are better.
But in each case we know so far, technology appears to be the reason. It's about overall performance, and it's also about sheer processing power, too.
Credit: Apple
Similarly, while Apple showed it more as an iPhone tool than a Mac one, M1 Macs will be able to use Live Text in macOS Monterey. With any image, whether it's on a website you're browsing or your own photos from five years ago, M1 Macs can read the text there.
That's intensive pattern recognition done on-device.
Doubtlessly, Intel Macs will be able to show you directions and the same level of detail we get now. But all of the tremendous extras like rendered elevations and city exploration we're getting with macOS Monterey won't be on Intel.
M1 exclusivity is not limited to updated features, either. The new Object Capture -- where users can make 3D scans of items -- will not be available on Intel Macs.
Credit: Apple
That's partly because dictation will now be done on-device instead. But as well as listening better, M1 Macs will speak better, too, in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish.
So this isn't a change for Apple, but it is a clear marker of just how quickly the Intel era will be no longer catered to.
That's not all that great for users who currently rely on Intel for specific workflows. It's terrible for users that rely on Boot Camp or virtualization solutions.
If you're in those groups, it's easy to be bitter about it. But the shift is beneficial to the vast majority of present Mac users, nearly all of the future switchers, and it brings visible benefits that we've not seen before.
When Apple moved the Mac to Intel, it got us faster Macs but not what you could call strikingly new or updated features. Of course, other than virtualization, or use of Windows natively on a Mac, that is.
Back to 2021, the sheer processing power of the Apple Silicon M1 is already enabling what Tim Cook promised at WWDC 2020. Cook was clear that "when we make bold changes, it's for one simple yet powerful reason -- so we can make much better products."
Follow all the details of WWDC 2021 with the comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the whole week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details of all the new launches and updates.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
The best of macOS Monterey will need an M1 processor, or later
Apple justifiably has a strong reputation for supporting older devices, and much more so than other technology firms. Tim Cook also publicly committed to supporting Intel-based Macs even after the company has completed its transition to Apple Silicon ones.
That is all right and proper. But so is this -- Apple is already leaving Intel behind with new features that are exclusive to the M1 and whatever comes next.
The entire point of moving away from Intel was to create new Macs that could do what the older models couldn't.
Looking at the features of macOS Monterey that will require Apple Silicon, it does seem as if they are necessary because of hardware changes. Perhaps some are also about marketing and showing that Apple Silicon Macs are better.
But in each case we know so far, technology appears to be the reason. It's about overall performance, and it's also about sheer processing power, too.
Credit: Apple
Image and object capture
You may or may not like blurred backgrounds in FaceTime calls, but if you do like the effect, you'd better buy an Apple Silicon Mac. Only Macs with the M1 processor or later will be able to blur that background in real time.Similarly, while Apple showed it more as an iPhone tool than a Mac one, M1 Macs will be able to use Live Text in macOS Monterey. With any image, whether it's on a website you're browsing or your own photos from five years ago, M1 Macs can read the text there.
That's intensive pattern recognition done on-device.
On-device rendering
For the opposite of recognizing images, Apple requires you to use an M1 Mac for all the visuals that are created for the new Apple Maps features.Doubtlessly, Intel Macs will be able to show you directions and the same level of detail we get now. But all of the tremendous extras like rendered elevations and city exploration we're getting with macOS Monterey won't be on Intel.
M1 exclusivity is not limited to updated features, either. The new Object Capture -- where users can make 3D scans of items -- will not be available on Intel Macs.
Credit: Apple
On-device Siri and dictation
You can currently dictate into Siri on a Mac for up to around one minute. From macOS Monterey onwards, there will be no time limit at all -- so long as you're on M1 or later.That's partly because dictation will now be done on-device instead. But as well as listening better, M1 Macs will speak better, too, in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish.
Forgetting Intel Macs
It would be good if Apple were clearer about what Intel users will and won't get. When Apple announces new features that require its latest hardware, it never stops a keynote presentation to throw in an asterisked footnote.So this isn't a change for Apple, but it is a clear marker of just how quickly the Intel era will be no longer catered to.
That's not all that great for users who currently rely on Intel for specific workflows. It's terrible for users that rely on Boot Camp or virtualization solutions.
If you're in those groups, it's easy to be bitter about it. But the shift is beneficial to the vast majority of present Mac users, nearly all of the future switchers, and it brings visible benefits that we've not seen before.
When Apple moved the Mac to Intel, it got us faster Macs but not what you could call strikingly new or updated features. Of course, other than virtualization, or use of Windows natively on a Mac, that is.
Back to 2021, the sheer processing power of the Apple Silicon M1 is already enabling what Tim Cook promised at WWDC 2020. Cook was clear that "when we make bold changes, it's for one simple yet powerful reason -- so we can make much better products."
Follow all the details of WWDC 2021 with the comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the whole week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details of all the new launches and updates.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Comments
Planned obsolescence much? Indeed that's the case as will be clear from the breakdown below.
Google Meet has done that for a while already. On a web application, no less.
For some reason the editor won't let me quote the next paragraph properly, so I'll just wrap it in double quotes.
"Doubtlessly, Intel Macs will be able to show you directions and the same level of detail we get now. But all of the tremendous extras like rendered elevations and city exploration we're getting with macOS Monterey won't be on Intel."
More of a GPU than CPU issue. Anyway, PCs can easily render ultra-high-resolution photorealistic games in real time, but hardware of similar caliber (with a less powerful, but still extremely powerful GPU) on an Intel Mac supposedly can't render some simple 2.5D scene with simple, almost schematic-level, assets? Give me a ******* break.
Conclusion: yeah, it's all marketing, and Apple pressuring us into an upgrade we don't really need. So much for being so "green", it's all about the greenbacks (as well it should be, but let's not pretend Apple is a saint).
Either way, I don't care, my hardware is still quite new (2018 MBP) and it'll have to last long to recoup my investment in it, even if Apple is forcing my hand on this by not allowing me to make a FaceTime call with a blurred background -- and, as mentioned, if I really need that feature, I'll just use Google Meet which miraculously is capable of doing that in my supposedly underperforming Intel Mac.
I'll probably stay out of the market for another 3 or 4 years, and in the meanwhile I'll be monitoring whether someone decides to tackle the Windows virtualization issue (hell, there was Virtual PC back in the PowerPC days, you're telling me Apple Silicon is so underpowered it can't emulate the supposedly low-performance Intel Macs?) If nobody does, this will probably be my last Mac.
are all Intel Macs really that bad graphic-wise? didn't we all agree that they were the go-to devices for photographers and graphic professionals? and now they cannot handle a background blurring in real time? really?
Hope that portends good things for the whole line, by waiting you should definitely enjoy a hassle-free first Mx based system.
On PCs tasks like real-time video and audio processing are also best handled by machine learning silicon. Much of this is actually handled by graphics cards with machine learning hardware (e.g., Tensor cores on GeForce RTX cards do the bulk of the work in the Nvidia Broadcast utility).
Not really… just about all the above features make heavy use the ANE and ML accelerators on the CPU, which do not exist on any Intel Mac. The M1 contains specialized cores for handling certain tasks that NO Intel based Mac could ever keep up with.